For what seemed like an eternity he sat quite still, engine still running, front wheel wedged against the ornate porch. He clutched the steering wheel so hard Alec had to prize his fingers free.
Twenty-Nine
The flat that Rupert still owned up until the time he died was on the top floor of an Edwardian house. The area had been on the rise for the past few years and, although this street was still shabby, the neighbouring area had already benefited from the redevelopment grants and the spreading out of people from the more fashionable areas a couple of miles down the road.
Small cafes and restaurants had sprung up and, although the bars had not entirely overtaken the more traditional pubs in popularity, there were signs of gradual encroachment about which Billy Pierce had mixed feelings.
Pierce had spent the morning doing his research. The land registry told him that Rupert Friedman owned the flat. 23c Oban Road. A chat to the neighbours told him that it was rented out and had been for years. To the same woman.
Billy Pierce had examined the mail laid out in open pigeon holes in the ground floor lobby and that confirmed what he already knew.
‘Well, well, Rupert Friedman,’ he said. ‘Weren’t you the sly fox.’
There was no one home when he knocked, so he crossed the road again and went into a small café he’d spotted earlier. Sitting in the window, he could watch the length of the road and had the house in view. He had a good idea who he’d be looking for. It was just a case of playing the waiting game.
Pierce sipped his tea and smiled wryly to himself. It felt good to be useful but one thing he had not missed was the mind numbing monotony of surveillance. He had settled in the café just after three and it was almost five when she came home.
Billy Pierce knew it was her. It could, of course, have been one of the other two women – one a wife, one a singleton, who lived in the same house, but he doubted it. This woman was the right age, right height, right from what he remembered, though it was many years since he had last seen her.
He gave her a chance to get inside and then left his seat, aware that the woman who ran the café stared after him as he walked down the street.
At the house, he pressed the buzzer for the top floor.
‘Hello?’ The woman’s voice was light. She sounded happy, friendly, Billy thought.
‘Is that Elaine Ritchie?’ he asked, though he knew it was. ‘I’ve come to talk about Rupert Friedman.’
Marcus allowed himself to be taken into the house. He was shaking so badly he could hardly stand, and although he could hear the words coming out of his mouth, he knew they were making no sense. They didn’t even make sense to him.
Harry handed him brandy and he swallowed in between convulsions, feeling the heat in his throat which warmed him to the core.
‘Is brandy really the thing for shock?’ Naomi’s voice, anxious and uncertain.
Marcus didn’t think he cared. The spirit seemed to steady him, at least for the moment, and he extended his glass, hoping for more. Someone obliged and he swallowed again, then leaned back in the armchair and closed his eyes.
He was crying, Marcus realized in horror. Weeping like a child but he couldn’t seem to stop. ‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered. ‘I’m so, so sorry.’ Not sure if he was apologizing for his tears or for something else.
The driver’s side front wing had been wedged tight against the brickwork of the porch by the impact of the crash. Harry inspected it for signs of structural damage but, apart from a few scaled bricks, the porch seemed to have won. The heavy columns on either side were, Harry noted, what was really keeping the porch roof up and the brickwork had only a secondary role.
‘It looks all right,’ he told Patrick. He glanced anxiously down the drive, expecting at any moment to see Kinnear, or whoever had been chasing Marcus, come charging up. In Harry’s imagination, Kinnear would be in a tank or at the very least an armoured car.
‘Something red hit the back end,’ Patrick said. He stood back from the vehicle, careful not to touch. He’d been around Naomi and Alec long enough to know about preservation of evidence. ‘Dad, I think someone rammed him from behind and then hit the rear wing, maybe when he turned into the driveway. Whatever it was hit hard. There’s a bloody great dent.’
Harry nodded. Behind him in the hallway he could hear Alec on the phone, calling the police and presumably trying to get hold of DS Fine.
‘I suppose we ought to check the end of the drive,’ he fretted. ‘If the other car hit as hard as you think the driver might have been hurt.’
Patrick cast him a speculative look. ‘Do you really want to go down there?’
‘No, not really.’
‘The police will be here before we know it.’
‘We might need an ambulance.’
Patrick sighed. ‘OK, we’ll take a look. You’re not going on your own. Just hold on.’
He slipped back into the house and returned with a heavy iron poker he had taken from the living-room fireplace.
‘Isn’t that called going equipped?’ Alec asked as he came out into the hallway.
‘No, I think it’s making like a boy scout and being prepared. Dad thinks we should see if anyone’s hurt. He’s not going on his own and you’re not leaving Naomi. Marcus is no use at the moment and Kinnear might try and come here.’
‘You’re giving the orders now, are you?’
‘Not making a habit of it, but …’
Alec nodded. ‘OK. But Patrick, you take a quick look and get straight back here. I’d suggest you drive, but both Harry’s car and mine seem to be wedged in.’ He frowned at Marcus’s impromptu parking. If the porch hadn’t stopped him he would have ploughed straight into Alec’s vehicle. As it was they’d have to shift Marcus’s car before either of them could get theirs out.
‘We’ll be all right.’
Alec watched them go and then shut the door and returned to Naomi and Marcus, glancing into the room to see if Marcus was talking yet. He went through to the kitchen and then the dining room, checking the doors and craning his neck to see the garden.
‘Where are they going?’ Naomi had heard part of the exchange.
‘To see if anyone’s hurt. Whoever was following Marcus seems to have collided with him.’
‘If it’s Kinnear I don’t give a damn.’
‘Not Kinnear,’ Marcus whispered. ‘It was the other one. He came to the shop and I ran. I got into my car and drove out here but he must have guessed. He was on the main road. He tried to force me off the road, bumping and barging from behind and then I just managed to make the turn and he hit my back end.’
‘Yours is a heavy car,’ Alec mused, thinking about the ageing BMW Marcus had been driving. ‘Marcus, what was he driving? Who is he? You must have seen him before.’
Marcus stared in bemusement and Alec realized his brain was not capable of processing more than one thing at a time.
‘Who is he?’ he began again.
‘I don’t know his name. I saw him with Sam Kinnear once, just by chance. Another time he was waiting in the car when Kinnear came to the shop. He only came that one time and that was just after Rupert died. He was in a dreadful rage. I was just closing up and I suppose he waited until everyone had gone. He said Rupert owned him money and that just because Rupert was dead didn’t mean he wasn’t still owed.’
‘Did he tell you where the money was from?’
Marcus nodded miserably. ‘He told me. He said he had proof. He had something Rupert had written, but he didn’t show me all of it, just enough to see that it was written in Rupert’s hand. He said Rupert had been paying him back, paying him by using the shop and his stock and all sorts of other things. He made Rupert sound like a common thief.’
‘Marcus,’ Alec said softly, ‘Rupert was a common thief. He stole.’
‘Rupert wasn’t a common anything,’ Marcus contradicted hotly. ‘That man Kinnear, he was blackmailing him. Forcing him to give him money. At first I didn’t want to believe him, but i
t all made sense. All made sense of what Rupert had been doing the past few months. All the things I didn’t understand. I thought Rupert was just tired of me, tired of the business. I thought he was getting ready to leave. Somehow, oh I know it sounds foolish, Alec, but this was easier to bear.’
‘You cared deeply for him,’ Naomi said.
‘I cared deeply, yes and Rupert was the best friend I ever could have wanted.’
Naomi bit her lip uncertain if she should push this. ‘Were you more than friends?’
Marcus laughed harshly. ‘My dear, I was never that lucky. Rupert wasn’t interested in me in that way. Rupert should have found a wife, settled down. I thought once there was someone, but he always denied it. I once saw a gold locket in his study. On his desk. I wondered then, but he said it belonged to a relative who’d been visiting and who had left it behind. I thought it was strange. Rupert didn’t have visitors here, not for many years.’
Naomi inclined her head quizzically, but she said nothing.
‘This man that followed you,’ Alec asked, ‘what was he driving?’
‘A little red hatchback. On the day I saw him waiting for Kinnear he was in something big and black. I don’t really know what.’
‘Did it never occur to you to go to the police?’ Naomi asked.
Marcus shook his head vehemently. ‘No,’ he said. ‘No, never. I didn’t want to see Rupert’s name dragged through the mud. I thought I could get what Kinnear wanted and then he’d go away. You had the house and the money Rupert left so no harm done there. All I had to do was find the records Rupert had kept. Then Kinnear could get at his money. That was what he said and that’s all I know.’
‘And you knew what the records were?’
‘A ledger Rupert kept, something on his laptop and something he had written in his little leather books. I didn’t know which ones, he had so many. Kinnear said they would be recent. He had seen one of them but he thought there might be more. He said to be on the safe side I should get them all, but I failed him, didn’t I. I tried to take them away when I helped with the search but the boy was always close by and I’d seen him poking around in the study. I knew he’d notice anything missing from the shelf …’ Marcus broke off. ‘I didn’t even know what to look for, I suppose. Not much use at anything, am I?’
‘You were unwise, not useless,’ Alec said. ‘Rupert hid the things Kinnear wanted. I’m not sure why he didn’t destroy them altogether, but maybe he didn’t have the time. Marcus, had Rupert been unwell in the weeks before he died?’
Marcus nodded. ‘He was always short of breath and complained of pains in his chest and arms. I believe he had a doctor’s appointment just days before he died.’
‘I think Rupe knew he didn’t have long left,’ Alec said.
Patrick stared at the overturned car. A motorist had stopped and was pacing around close by. Patrick shoved his poker into the hedge before the motorist should happen to see it. He thought it might take a bit of explaining.
‘Did you come from the house back there?’
Harry nodded. ‘We’ve called the police. We, er, heard the crash.’
‘Right. Joyriders most likely. We’ve started to get a few of the buggers round here. I just came round the bend and nearly hit it. Thought I’d better stop back there and get the hazards on. I’ve called the police too.’
‘Joyriders?’ Harry questioned. ‘Why?’
The motorist shrugged. ‘Obvious, isn’t it? The driver’s done a runner. No, he and his mates’ll be long gone across the field. Probably spend the evening boasting about it in some pub or other.’
In the distance Harry could hear sirens. ‘Sounds like the police,’ he said.
Patrick bent down and peered inside. The car had ended up on its roof, half in and half out of a ditch and wedged beneath the hedge. The window was open, not broken in the crash, so most likely had been open when the vehicle was being driven. The man who had chased Marcus must have climbed out through there. There was blood on the door, Patrick noted. Part of a handprint and crushed grass where he had fallen as he clambered out. The hedge behind was thick and thorny, but he remembered there being a gate just a little further along the road.
‘He was hurt,’ he told Harry as he went back to rejoin him, the police car had arrived now. ‘There’s blood on the door.’
Harry nodded. ‘Then I don’t imagine he’s gone far,’ he said. ‘The police should find him soon.’
Thirty
The hammering on the kitchen door startled Alec. He made his way warily through to the kitchen and then, hearing a young voice, he unlocked the door. ‘Danny, I presume? What on earth?’
‘He came to the farm. I saw him. I saw him talking to my mum and there was another bloke with him. I saw them. I’d forgot, then I saw the picture and I remembered.’
He was waving a copy of the local paper at Alec. Kinnear’s picture stared out from the front page.
‘Me dad gets the paper every day. He ain’t there right now. I saw this, saw his picture.’
‘You’re certain. Oh, of course you are.’ Alec relocked the door. ‘Come on in, it’s all getting a bit dramatic. I’m Alec, by the way. Danny, where’s your dad now, do you know?’
Danny shrugged and shook his head. ‘Always off somewhere,’ he said. ‘I fed the stock, watered it. I’ve not seen him this morning.’
Alec thought of Ellen March but said nothing. He led Danny through to the front living room and directed him to a seat. ‘You’ve met Marcus?’
Danny nodded. ‘He runs the antique shop where Rupert … Mr Friedman worked. Where’s Patrick? Why is there a car crashed into your porch?’
‘Patrick and Harry are down the road, they’ll be back very soon.’ The sound of sirens broke into the conversation and Danny leapt up and went to look out of the window.
‘Police cars? What’s happened, Alec?’
Alec’s mobile phone rang. It was Patrick.
Naomi told Danny what had been going on.
‘Chased him from the shop?’ she could hear the awe in his voice. ‘Shit! Sorry.’
‘No, I think the bad language is quite appropriate,’ Marcus said with dignity. ‘That is precisely the way I feel.’
‘Patrick says Fine’s arrived and is coming up with them. The scene’s been secured and SOCO called. There’s nothing more he can do until it’s released to him so he’s going to come and talk to us.’
‘What does all that mean?’ Danny asked.
‘It means they’ve found the car that hit Marcus?’ Naomi asked.
‘On its side in the ditch. No sign of the driver.’
‘The uniformed officer will have to make sure the scene is secured, that means no one can go into it. They’ll lay a single path that everyone has to follow, then the crime scene officers will come in and do their stuff. Then DS Fine will be allowed back and he’ll be told what’s been found so far.’ Naomi explained. ‘Alec, any idea what condition the driver might be in?’
‘Patrick says there was blood, but he’s nowhere close so … hard to tell. Danny, you say Kinnear came to the farm. Do you remember when?’
The boy shook his head. ‘Couple of weeks back.’
‘Before or after Rupert died. Do you remember?’
He thought about it. ‘Must have been before,’ he said finally. ‘The other man gave my mum a lift home and she said he was a friend she had met at this meeting with Mr Friedman.’
‘She hadn’t driven herself.’
‘Can’t have done if he gave her a lift home,’ Danny said reasonably. ‘I don’t know why. Anyway, they were standing talking and this other man came up. He just drove into the yard like and the dark-haired man took one look and said he’d better go. Mam didn’t say anything, but I could tell she didn’t like him much. Then a few days after he came to see my dad. I was in the barn and I stayed up there. They were arguing. I could see that, but I don’t know what about, except me dad and mam were in a fight later about her having her … friends come to th
e farm.’
‘Friends?’
Danny shrugged uncomfortably. ‘Dad called him her fancy man. But mam would never do anything with someone like him. Never.’
‘Danny, this is a difficult question, but the other man, the one your mum said was a friend. Did you get the impression that he was more than that? Or that she’d known him long?’
Danny stared hard at him, his body stiff and unease showing in the set of his shoulders. Finally, he shrugged. ‘I dunno,’ he said. ‘I dunno what she was doing. What’s the use in asking me?’
Fine announced that he would walk back up to Fallowfields and left his car parked on the verge at the end of their driveway. He raised an eyebrow as Patrick retrieved his poker from the hedge.
‘I thought we should be prepared,’ Patrick said. ‘But I’d better not leave it there now, someone might think it’s part of the crime scene.’
Fine laughed. ‘It might muddy the waters,’ he agreed. ‘I’m relieved you didn’t have cause to use it. I might have been arresting you too.’
Patrick shrugged. ‘You think he’d have gone far? You know who he is?’
‘Well, the descriptions point to it being Derek Reid,’ he said. ‘He was always top of our list. Funny though, he has no real history of violence. This seems out of character, at least from what I’ve seen of his sheet.’
‘Fear can make people behave in some very odd ways,’ Harry commented.
‘True. Is Marcus up to being questioned?’
‘Provided Naomi didn’t give him any more brandy. By the time we left he was calming down somewhat. I imagine Alec and Naomi will have got his story from him anyway.’
Legacy of Lies Page 18